Down in the Valley
by Raftina Rune
Summary: Canas fought with valor alongside Hector, Lyn, and Eliwood. He walked the line of insanity in the throes of the darkness of his magic. His ending was a tragedy. This is my tribute to him. One-shot, character death, No yaoi.


Schala: I finally got this finished, as I've been planning on this one for a long time. I had looked forward to seeing Canas' ending in Fire Emblem, being he was my favorite character. When I finally got to read it, it...disappointed me. I also noticed that there was a lack of fanfiction with poor Canas so I feel that this needed to be done. I don't own Fire Emblem, I only partially own Aria. Please review.

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_"Down in the valley,  
  
Valley so low, Hang your head over,  
  
Hear the wind blow.  
  
Hear the wind blow dear,  
  
Hear the wind blow. Hang your head over, Hear the wind blow..."_  
  
Canas stood in the doorway of his son's room, listening as his wife sang to their almost asleep son, and couldn't help smiling just a little. It had only been about two years since he had come home from his traveling, and his son was four years of age. Though that didn't stop his wife (Aria) from singing lullabies such as that to the young child. It was wintertime in Ilia, the worst time of year for the normally frozen place. Consequently, they received their fair share of blizzards, some of which were so thick you wouldn't be able to see one foot in front of you. Tonight, they would be receiving one of those very storms. A Pegasus Knight from another village had warned them of a 'white-out' that was coming their way. It was obviously a ferocious storm too as the Knight and her Pegasus were currently recovering from severe frostbite. Rumor was that the village had been disseminated from an avalanche. His eyes averted to the window, the snowflakes coming gently down were just a ruse for the coming storm.  
  
The Shaman hadn't even realized that his wife had finished the lullaby until she had walked over to him and embraced him for a few moments before letting go of him. The couple was really the only ones capable of defending the town as his brothers were...incapable of much of anything and he couldn't let his mother go out there too. He ignored her protests of going out to help earlier telling her that she wasn't as young as she used to be. Instead, she would stay with their sleeping child. They slowly walked out of the room, going to the main room, and took a seat.  
  
"How long do you think we have, Canas?" Aria asked him in a hushed tone. He cleaned his monocle with his shirt and replaced it on his face as he thought.  
  
"I would guess a few hours. But that's all. Not near enough time for us to acquire other capable people here to help us." He saw the sad look in Aria's eyes as he looked at her a moment. "Though...I think we'll be all right."  
  
His wife stood up and walked towards a window. "...I don't know..." There was a moment's silence as she thought about all the things...rumors that she had heard. Rumors that she either was too naïve to listen to or just outright ignored. It would take a lot for her to actually bring it up as the very thought made her want to hurl. However, she felt that if she didn't say something soon...then she may never get the chance, and she wanted the truth. "Canas?"  
  
"Yes, my dear?" came the reply. Aria took a deep breath and closed her eyes before saying anything.  
  
"Do...you love me, Canas? Or...did you marry me merely to further your studies?" she asked feeling a huge burden lift off her shoulders...and have another rest as she awaited the answer. Canas thought for a few moments.  
  
"Why, Aria, I do love you, but I also cannot deny that I did marry you to further my studies. Of course though the former far outdoes the latter," he finally answered, hugging her from behind. He wiped a tear from his wife's eye. "Now, let's talk about this later, we truly should be going to get prepared for this coming storm."  
  
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It was a terribly foreboding night, and the wind howled continuously making the extreme temperature feel even worse. Of course, it didn't only feel worse, it was worse for any that would even begin to try to make their way in it. Though fire whipped through the air and a darker darkness then the night would be seen going around the village as a barrier. Canas and Aria trudged up one of the hills, making a guess as to where an avalanche may occur as it would be a true calamity if one were to occur. So they stayed near there, watching with a nervousness that rivaled even when he had fought with the three lords against the fire dragon. Though they waited...and waited...and nothing happened. Therefore, the two began to scout again for a place in which would be favorable for the dreaded avalanche that would surely happen with all the weight that the new snow was putting on the stability of the premises.  
  
They hadn't taken but a few steps away when a roaring sound penetrated their ears. Canas looked around him for the area that had indeed created an avalanche, finally whipping around to look behind him. They...had been right all along as it was the very direction that they had left only moments earlier. He had noticed that Aria was all ready creating a barrier to lead the avalanche away from their village and joined in, using his ancient magic to extend the barrier and lead it all away. They held on for as long as they could, unfortunately, they couldn't contain the weight and their barriers disappeared, releasing the pent up snow.  
  
Canas pushed Aria in front of him to make her go first as she was obviously frozen in fear. "Run!" he shouted, thankful that his wife responded.  
  
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The next morning, the villagers awoke to their doorways being covered by snow, having to dig their way out. The Mountain Hermit herself came out, especially worried as her son and daughter-in-law hadn't returned even yet. Using her own magic, she searched the snow, though after a moment, she found didn't have to – to her horror there was a patch of red barely seeping through the pure white snow. Her old, wrinkled hands began to claw at the crimson-stained snow, refusing to cry knowing her tears would freeze. She had all ready lost her other sons to the darkness of the magical art that they had spent their entire lives learning. But...even that was better to her then to lose her youngest completely...  
  
Aria's face was revealed, blue from the cold and loss of blood. Behind her head was a rock, obviously she couldn't out-run the avalanche, and consequently was knocked right into the sharp rock, cutting the back of her head open. If...only she had gotten there sooner... The old woman then began to search for her son, far more despaired as to his condition now. The search took merely moments, as she first found the glinting of his monocle. Unearthing him from the snow she found him as well, the only thing she could figure was that he had tripped and fell down the slope and snapped his neck. "My...poor son...Canas..." the old woman finally said pulling his corpse to her ancient body as a mother would do to her infant.  
  
They would be known as heroes to the village as the avalanche (even though it had hit the village) was far more distributed and didn't cause a lot of damage. The ancient hermit merely rocked her dead son and sang a lullaby with a broken voice, hoping to maybe ease the spirit of the fallen Shaman. Silently she promised herself again that she would see to it that her grandson would grow strong...

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